Getting back into the groove

Tomorrow it is two weeks until school starts. I'm ready. I am a little suspicious of people who hate school holidays to end. I feel rested, ready to get back into work and 11 weeks is a long time for anyone to have a break from meaningful occupation. They need their brains challenged again! Disagree with me if you like, but you don't have my children.

From the left: Gary, April, Rachel and me at our
annual JH planning meeting.

Today I'm trying to get my brain around to an editing mode again. I have articles sitting on my computer that need to be gotten into shape for the next issue. I don't think it is just the heat and humidity that is making this difficult. It takes a while for me to get back into the editing groove after some time away.

It's not that I have been totally absent from this role for months, but lately have been doing bigger picture stuff rather than the nitty gritty job of word wrangling.

Last Tuesday, for example, I led the second Annual Planning Meeting for Japan Harvest. It was a good time, I have a great team! We talked pretty non-stop for six hours and made some good decisions for the magazine's future.

We did wrangle with some difficult problems. For example, how to help our designer by taking some of the load off her (she has a newborn and a 2 y.o., plus a part-time job at CAJ) and what to do about me going on Home Assignment next June. Managing this magazine is a tricky balancing act, because this magazine is produced on a shoe-string budget, by volunteers who almost all have significant other roles. But again, because I have such a terrific team, I'm prepared to go the extra mile to help them as much as I can. It would be great to have a couple more team members, though.

But for now, I need to break away and find some food to feed the hungry hoards for lunch.